Pandora's Box
by chinaplatter
Summary: After being woken up from a nightmare, young Estel goes to Legolas for a story. And so Legolas tells him the story of Pandora's box and how Hope came to Middle Earth.


**A/N: Ok, so, I took huge,** _ **huge**_ **liberties with the history of Middle Earth and the actual myth about Pandora here. Although, the part about Pandora opening the box to free Hope may not be so inaccurate, since there's this version where instead of remaining behind in the box, Hope gets Pandora to release it. But, anyways, yeah, I took huge liberties, so I hope you don't hate me for it! This is just a mash-up with the myth and Tolkien's universe. Happy reading.**

 **Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to the wonderful J.R.R Tolkien, and Pandora belongs to the Greeks, technically.**

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The small sound of shuffling feet alerted the elf to the young man's presence. Legolas was already sitting up in his bed when the door was pushed open to reveal a small child of around six years.

"Bad dreams?" Legolas asked as the child nodded and climbed onto the bed and settled close to the elf, leaching off of his warmth.

"I wanna story" Estels voice was muffled as he had pressed his face closely into Legolas' tunic. Legolas sighed. This hadn't been the first time Estel's nightmares had awoken him and sent him running to Legolas' room. He knew that the child had his father die from pursuing orcs, and that was enough reason to have nightmares in the first place.

" _The child needs a friend and a mentor." Elrond had said quietly to Legolas after he had introduced them. "He will need someone loyal at his side when he grows up and needs to face his des-"_

" _I understand," Legolas interrupted, which wasn't like him. He just didn't want to think of how the child would one day become a king. "He's a bright child and I am willing to mentor him, and once he is old enough, be his friend."_

Legolas tousled Estel's hair. "Alright _tithen pen,_ but once I am finished, you must immediately go to sleep, alright?"

"Mhm" Estel nodded his head and snuggled down in the sheets of the bed.

And so Legolas began...

"A long, long time ago in Middle Earth, the Valar had created a box to store all the evil things on this earth. The evil things weren't orcs, nor were they any physical being, but deadly traits that would taint anyone and anywhere they were placed. The Valar had created the box so that all the evil traits were trapped inside, and couldn't get out and destroy the Middle Earth back then. But they didn't know where to place it, for if they kept it in the Heavens with them, it would eventually cause them to become evil like the contents of the box. And so they created a young lady to take the box to Middle Earth, as they thought that the box would be safe there.

The Valar gifted her with beauty, charm, and wit. And so, with all her gifts, Pandora was sent to Middle Earth with the box of evils to keep it safe.

Before she left, the Valar warned her that the box must never be opened. They did not tell her what was inside, however, and Pandora did not ask. Pandora just heard, and she understood.

Some years after Pandora was sent to Middle Earth, she was feeling tired. She had roamed from kingdom to kingdom, from Gonder to the Lonely Mountains to Mirkwood and back again. The added curse of the box did not help ease her soul in any way either. And so she asked the Valar to give her somewhere to rest, and maybe someone to keep her company.

And the Valar answered her, they told her to continue towards the east, where she will find a young man willing to give her his home and love -"

Estel stuck his tongue out. "Ew," he said.

Legolas laughed. "It's not really as disgusting as you think it is, Estel. Anyways, Pandora heard the gods, and she understood. She traveled towards the east for a long, long time, until she was overcome with fatigue due to the burden of carrying the box of evils. She collapsed in a forest and prayed desperately to the Valar to help her, before fainting. Before long, a young man found her in the forest and seeing her weak state, took pity on her and brought her to his house.

The young man was called Epimetheus and he was one of the most curious man alive on Middle Earth. As he tended her and healed her, he noticed a box that she was holding, which happened to be the one full of evils. He was curious to know about what was inside-"

Estel sucked in a breath.

"-but he decided that it wasn't his place to be looking into the woman's private things. He carefully set it aside and continued with his work, he would ask the lady about it later-"

Estel breathed a sigh of relief and snuggled closer to Legolas.

"Finally, Pandora woke up, and she immediately panicked since she could not see her box anywhere. Her yell of distress sent Epimetheus running to her room. She told him, quite anxiously, that she could not find her box. The man briefly wondered why the box was so important to her. He gave her the box and when he asked about it Pandora just shook her head and clutched it tighter. And so he did not ask about it again.

Many months passed and Pandora and Epimetheus gradually fell in love. One day Epimetheus came back from a week of work and asked her to marry her, to which she replied with yes-"

"Ewww" Estel stuck his tongue out again. "Gross."

Legolas ruffled Estels hair, then continued, "-and they lived happily together for many months. But Epimetheus couldn't forget why the box seemed so important to Pandora.

One day Pandora had to go out to finish some work. Before she left, she gave the box to her husband and told him to never, ever, under any circumstances, open the box. After, she kissed him goodbye and left.

Epimetheus wandered back to the dining room, when his eyes caught sight of the box. With great self restraint, he stopped himself from going closer to it, for if he did, he would definitely have opened it.

A day passed, and every time Epimetheus went near the box, he could hear Melkor's servants whispering in his ear.

 _What do you think is inside of it?_

 _Why can't you open it?_

 _Why won't Pandora let you open it, why was she so worried when she couldn't find it?_

 _Why_ _ **shouldn't**_ _you open it?_

Eventually, Epimetheus couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer. Maybe if he just took a peek, and closed it really quickly, it wouldn't count as opening it, right? And so he carefully pried opened the top of the box-"

Estel grabbed onto Legolas' sleeve.

"-And out came dozens and dozens of ugly shadowy shapes. The shadows didn't have a defining shape, and they morphed and hissed hideously when they came in touch with the sunlight, but that didn't deter them from flying fast across Middle Earth. Epimetheus immediately tried to close the box, but to no avail. The shadows teased him as they left to spread havoc across the land. At this moment, Pandora arrived back home. She saw the shadows flying out of the roof, and immediately knew something was terribly wrong. She ran into the house and saw her husband desperately trying to close the box. With her added help, they managed to close the box. But it was too late, all of the evil had already escaped the box and spread over Middle Earth. From then on, the races of middle earth were susceptible to greed, gluttony, lust, vanity, wrath and more.

Pandora turned to scold her husband for opening the box when they heard a small voice coming from within the box, telling them to open it again. Pandora, obviously, refused since the Valar had specifically told her not to. But the voice pleaded with them, telling them that it was called Hope, and if she didn't open the box to free it, it will suffocate inside and die, taking all hope away from Middle Earth in the process.

Pandora finally relented. She opened the box, and out came a small purple butterfly, looking very weak and very frail. The butterfly fluttered out and thanked Pandora for releasing it. And from then on, even though Middle Earth was plagued by the the evil shadows, as long as the races of Middle Earth still had Hope, the shadows could not fully take them."

"That's me" Estel murmured sleepily. "That's my name, hope."

"Why, you arrogant child, you think you are the Hope of Middle earth?" Legolas teased as he pounced on Estel and began tickling him.

Estel flailed his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the tickles, but eventually stopped and just started laughing. "Sto-op it-t Lego'as-STOP" Estel gasped out between laughing.

Legolas let out a chuckle and sat back down on his haunches. "Anyways, Estel, you've heard your story, now it's time to go to sleep."

Estel rubbed his eyes and nodded. "Yes, Lego'as" he said, then yawned. Legolas tucked him into the sheets and looked at him for a while.

"Actually, Estel, you probably _are_ Middle Earth's greatest Hope."

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 **Ahh, so how'd you guys like it? I hope you guys didn't mind me changing the myth a little too much. And for playing around with Middle Earth's history. Hah. Please review and like, thanks so much!**

 **:)**


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